A fallen leaf still has its way
On the ground, matter changes hands.
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A fallen leaf can become food for decomposing fungi. These absorb nutrients from dead organic matter and participate in its recycling. Support makes a difference: there are fungi linked to leaves, wood or humus. Decomposition is a relationship with food; the form of a hat alone does not explain this way of life.
Protecting this underground life also goes through the way the soil is treated. In the interview of the Gulbenkian Garden, Susana Gonçalves explains that excessive mobilization and compaction can harm mycelium networks. It is a general orientation of conservation, without evaluating the state of any land of the municipality.
The names also keep clues about the support: foliage grows on the fallen leaves, lignite in the wood and humícolas in decomposing vegetable residues. They are words to describe where they live, not names of species. In the same landscape, different materials offer different possibilities of food; leaving a leaf or branch in the place also preserves part of this context.
WHERE DOES FOOD COME?
Open every relationship and compare.
Dead leaves and wood · decomposition
Saprophytes use dead matter and contribute to recycling nutrients.
Explore life in a trunk →Live roots · partnership
In mycorrhizae, the plant provides organic compounds; the fungus helps to obtain water and nutrients.
Discover the partnership →A host · parasitism
The fungus uses resources from another organism, damaging it.
Know this relationship →
Source and context
Silvestrian Resource Competence Centre — General Mycology
Accessed:
Gulbenkian Garden — ecology of fungi, with Susana Gonçalves (17/04/2023)
Accessed:
Editorial summary; the date of consultation is not the date of the facts.